When my eldest sister, T, told me the a new Westin Resort was opening in Phuket and they were running some really good opening promo; I quickly went to make the all the necessary bookings.

We planned and decided to go a week before the school holidays, just so the flight was half the price (of the school holiday’s rate). T too was going with Tasha, and Annie, her helper.

♥30th August♥

We arrived in Phuket early in the morning. The Westin Siray Bay Resort is ~40mins from the airport, so by the time we went through immigration, collected our checked in bags, hired a taxi and got to the resort, it was late morning. We were lucky, our room was ready. T had to wait for hers, and it wasn’t ready until almost 3pm!

The room was sea facing, and had such a spectacular view. With 2 hollywood single beds + a complimentary child’s rollaway bed, it still felt spacious (although Daddy complained a bit). I forced the girls to take their naps (because I wanted to take mine too, since I was packing till late midnight, and woke up 5am that morning) once the Ooos and Aaaas died down in the room.

Zara slept in her rollaway, Daddy has the huge bed to himself and I shared mine with Zaria.

We woke up around 2pm, and the girls were eager to get to the pool. So off we went, and met Tasha there.

The rest of the first day was spent with the girls in the pool, and exploring the facilities in the hotel.

For dinner, oh, I must share this, because it still makes us pissed just thinking about it.

We (including T, Tasha and Annie) thought we’d go to a near by restaurant OUTSIDE the hotel and thought we’d walk.

It was dark, and we didn’t know how far we must walk. Half way walking, a driver in a Westin car asked us to hop on. He’d send us, for FREE. So, ok, we got him to drive us to the restaurant (which was less than 1km from the hotel).

This restaurant, Plaey Leam, is those outdoor type (like our Warong Tomyam); menu showing prices of Tomyam 450Baht; prawn cakes 400Baht etc etc. Reasonable right? So, we ordered Tomyam, prawn cakes, a fried fish, a vege, pineapple fried rice, drinks for everyone, I think that was it.

Before we settled the bill, the person in charged came over to tell us that the driver ordered fried rice, did we want to pay for it? We thought, ok, we’d pay, just as a treat to him.

Who knows, soon after, the man waved to the driver, and both of them went to the back, and less than 3minutes, the driver was out, stuffing something, probably fried rice (?), into the pocket!

And the bill came. Freaking ~5000Baht (~RM500). The driver’s fried rice was 200Baht! All the dishes was double the price of what was indicated on the menu, apparently, he gave us double the portion of everything. We complained, and he just gave us the grin, “This no expensip, this Thai plice.”

So we got blardy conned, by the restaurant, and the driver! Daddy was fuming; but T said, the consololation was the food was not bad.

♥31st August♥

After breakfast, we went to check out the Westin Kids’ Club. An adult have to accompany children below 4 (Zaria) but for children above 4, you can actually leave them with the staff, and they will have activities from 9am to 5pm to keep the kids occupied. There were also lots of arts and crafts to be done and most of them were free.

One of the staff taught the girls how to draw chicken, and Zaria immediately started working on her (four legged chicken) piece.

At 11am, thanks to my sis who prebooked our seats (only 11 seats per trip), we followed the hotel free shuttle to Phuket town.

We spent all our time shopping in Ocean and Robinson, and had late lunch; and then took the free shuttle back at 3:30pm.

Children didn’t want to nap, and preferred to do more swimming.

That night, we walked out to Look Mai, another restaurant near Westin (only 2 within walking distance). This time, we checked all the prices and made sure ‘small’ portion was ordered. The prices were definitely more reasonable, and the cooking more homely.

The girls wanted to watch TV when we got back to our room, but Zaria knocked off 5mins into the show (no nap == early bed time). Tasha came over to sleep with us, and shared a bed with Zara. Daddy moved to the roll over, and claimed it was more comfortable than the heavenly bed.

I love books (or maybe owning books).
I was called a book worm when I was younger.
I tried not to miss any book sales if I can, but I think I have to vow not to go to the next one just in case I went on a buying frenzy again.

After Daddy came back from China a month back with 10 new recipe books for me, I (and he) thought that should last me a while; then The Bookfest @ Malaysia 2010 organised by Popular started (4th Sept to 12th Sept)!

~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~

Last Sunday, I told Daddy to bring us there in the morning.
We were in KLCC from 11am till almost 7pm.
The Bookfest was held in KL Convention Centre, occupying whole 6 Halls! Brightly litted, strong air con, with lots of staff around to help seach for titles, putting books (people took and placed somewhere else) back where they belong, it was very pleasant to be spending time going through books.

I spent the whole time in the hall, while Daddy went in and out.
He walked through the halls, picked up some stationary.
Then he brought the girls out for lunch (and bought me back a sausage roll so I don’t have to waste time going out to eat).
And after seeing I was not planning to leave still, he brought the girls to Aquaria, and paid RM85 just for tickets for the 3 of them!

Daddy took these photos just to show how boring interesting Aquaria was.

The most interesting part of Aquaria is probably the scuba diver feeding the fishes. The girls got lucky this time and managed to watch it.

When they were done, Daddy called me to see if I was ready to leave. I wasn’t, of course, so he brought the girls to KLCC park.

By the time I paid up and left, it was almost 7pm, and our parking cost us RM20!

~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~

Last Saturday, while we were thinking where to go, I suggested the Bookfest again. Daddy complained, “With all the cook books you have, if you picked something from the books to make each day, it’ll last you your whole life. Why do you want to buy some more?”
I argued back, “You should support my hobby. Instead of spending money on bags, and shoes and clothes, I spend on books!”
We went anyway, and had dinner at Hakka Restaurant; parked our car there (so that we don’t have to pay the exorbitant KLCC parking), then walked to KL Convention Centre.

Daddy brought the girls for ice cream so that I can have a start going through the books first.

Then he brought them in and left them with me while he looked at his books.

Girls followed me with their books, and made themselves REALLY comfortable.

Daddy took this shot before leaving for the English section.

We stayed till they closed for the night.

~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~

Yesterday, Daddy asked where we should go after dinner, and I said, “One last trip to the Bookfest?” I didn’t think he would oblidge, but he DID!

And we were there the 3rd time.

This time, only I entered. The girls followed him to KLCC to shop.

~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~

Besides these books, I got the girls some stationary, stickers and stamps as well. I also bought Christmas presents for the neighbours.

~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~

My 坏人 isn’t that 坏 after all…. 😛

When I told Daddy I wanted to meet my friend who’s back from Hong Kong for holidays with her children in Petrosains, he was skeptical about the place. I too was thinking what there was to do.

I was there with my nieces and nephew more than 8 years ago, and we really didn’t think it was nice. However, this was more of a trip to meet up with my friend, and not so much about enjoying Petrosains.

I met my friend and her sister at the entrance of Petrosains with her two sons plus her two nephews and her niece. 7 children and 4 adults all in, what a group!

We bought the family ticket, RM24 for 2 adults and 2 children, although Zaria is below 4, and is free, it still worked out to be cheaper buying the family ticket than individual ticket. We entered Petrosains after our lunch, and didn’t think we would spend so much time there.

Let the photos do the talking.

Six children trying to build a track with tubes so they can see balls roll through.

Zaria trying in vain to ‘catch’ a hologram car. She said, “It’s magic!”

There were lots of Information Panels, and computers throughout Petrosains, and Zaria loved pressing on the buttons and checking out what they each did.

Zara and her new friend trying to move around iron dust with magnets.

Look who’s an astronaut? You can actually take a photo of yourself, and see your face displayed as the suspended dummy astronaut’s.

Zara’s thermal scan.

Pulleys and tubes, and conveyor belts formed this play area for children (and adults) where they see how little metal beads travelled in a loop.

This is my favourite, the interactive art. Where the images projected on the screens moved and ‘reacted’ accordingly to your body movement.

Girls here were trying to make the butterflies stand on their shoulders.

Catching falling crystals.

Feeling the different viscosities of different oil.

My friend’s son trying to find out how fast the balls he threw travelled, and at what momentum they hit the wall.

Girls trying to race in an F1 race.

Zaria and myself driving our own F1 cars. I did extremely badly as the car was hard to control with such power. Zara told me, “If you cannot drive this car, then I think you cannot drive a real car”

Zara’s turn, she could hardly reach the pedal, but that’s not stopping her.

I don’t know how this work, but you put on a strap (with electrodes) on your forehead and try to use your mind to resist the ball from being pushed to you. My friend’s son (the champ of this game) and myself having a go here, he beat almost every contestant, including me, but I gave him a strong fight, lasting quite long.

Girls and me in a Hurricane Chamber, the girls didn’t like it, and when the ‘wind’ started being slightly stronger, they ‘escaped’.

My friend had to rush through some of the activities because she had a dinner to attend.

There are lots of other things to play with or try out which are not shown here. We tried the earthquake stimulator, helicopter simulation, etc etc. And before we knew it, we spent more than 4hrs in Petrosains!

The girls were exhausted and since we wanted to have dinner around KLCC, we brought them to Coffee Club at Kinokuniya to nap, while we had tea.

After a short nap, we brought the girls to the KLCC play ground, to play some more.

With all this time spent in KLCC, our parking came up to RM19! o.O”

Dinner was just us at Hakka Restaurant overlooking KLCC.

We thought we’ll make our yearly Penang trip this year earlier during the June school holidays.

We decided that this time we’ll not stay in Batu Feringgi, but in George Town instead, so that we don’t waste time travelling to town for all the good food. We chose Traders Hotel as our base, since I thought this is a business hotel and it should not be as crowded with families on holidays.

It was definitely a good choice, Traders Hotel is so near to everything, provides very good breakfast spread, and although there were many families on holidays, it didn’t feel as crowded. The only complaint I have is the room is a bit small for our family compared to rooms in hotel at Batu Feringgi.

♥June 10 – Thursday♥

We left home late morning, and 1st stop was Tanjung Malim town for (so-so) duck rice. After that, instead of heading towards Penang, Daddy drove back towards KL by mistake. He only realised that when we were reaching Lembah Beringin. 45mins wasted journey.

It was in the evening by the time we reached St Anne, Bukit Mertajam, a place we try to come once a year to give our thanks to all the blessings we received.

Zaria would now request for her photos taken at places she likes. Here is one with her in front of the old church.

And another at one of the station of cross.

Girls like the taps at the St Anne’s Water, because they get to play with water without get scolded.

And even do some water fight.

It’s always a nice feeling coming to this church.

Since we didn’t quite like the sea food in Bukit Tambut last year, we decided to have dinner in Penang Island instead. We headed to our favourite char kuey teow stall (Jalan Siam and Jalan Anson junction), but were told they have sold out. We headed to Nonya Breeze instead for home style Nonya food. The food at this place is always satisfying.

Girls were all excited when we reached the hotel. When we got into our room, they immediately rushed to the bed to jump. Some thing they always do on hotel beds! We had to literally drag them out of the room to head across the road to have some Tang Yuan.

Daddy can’t understand the rave about this tang yuan stall (across Traders Hotel on Magazine Road). It’s good but nothing fantastic. I told him he was lucky I made them at home, even the ones with fillings, or else, this would probably the best tang yuan he’s ever eaten.

♥June 11 – Friday♥

After a really good breakfast at the hotel, we let the girls spend time at the pool. The hotel has 2 small swimming pools (one for adults and another for kids) but because there wasn’t a crowd, it was very enjoyable.

We then headed to Ah Leng char keuy teow (junction of Jalan Dato Keramat and Jalan Dunlop), recommended by Chubby Hubby, where the kuey teow is a little wet, like pad-thai. It was ok but not really our cup of tea.

Girls fell asleep in the car, and we headed to Pulau Tikus to search for the best Soya Sauce made in Penang, which is also recommended by Chubby Hubby (Kwong Heng Loong 廣興隆醬園醬油, 7A, Jalan Pasar, Pulau Tikus).

I requested to taste the soya sauce before purchasing, and the shop owner scoped some out from an urn and dripped some into my palm to taste. Boy, it was good. I bought 10 bottles of the best ones, and already regretting I didn’t get more.

You can buy the soya sauce in bottles.

Or you can bring your old bottle to the shop for refills.

After that, we headed to Lebuh Armenian to look at all the World Heritage buildings.

We saw 2 of the houses under Straits Collection, run by Bonton.

We then chanced upon the Khoo Kongsi, and decided to visit it (RM5 per entry for adults).

It is a nicely preserved, and a beautiful place. Even though I don’t know much about architecture, I like the place and the feel of it.

If you think the outside of the clanhouse, Leong San Tong, is beautiful, the inside is even more so.

Since we didn’t get to eat our favourite Chay Kuey Teow the night before, we decided to try our luck again and went there earlier. Such an unassuming stall, but the char kuey teow is super good. The man who’s frying is rather old, I wish him good health so we can continue to enjoy his char keuy teow.

If you think Lorong Selamat or Sister’s Char Kuey Teow is good, wait till you try this. And only for RM3.80 per plate.

Back at the hotel, girls had a wild time jumping on the bed and playing hide and seek in the cupboard, until they got tired.

♥June 12 – Saturday♥

We have struck a deal with the girls that after breakfast, we’ll head on to Chowrasta Market and swimming will come later.

Instead of going to the market building on Penang Road, we went to the stalls along Jalan Kuala Kangsar.

Saw this man selling King Crab (I heard that’s what it’s called) and Giant Snails. Something we don’t find in KL except in those expensive sea food restaurant.

I bought ham and chinese sausages from this shop last year, and I went back there again to get more since my MIL said the ham was rather nice (and the chicken Chinese sausage is rare to find any where else). Zara was giggling away watching the animated owner when he gave us recommendations and introductions of items he sold in his shop.

Found a stall selling Kueh Ketayap. She was almost done for the day, but decided to make more batter, so she could sell a few to me to try. The coconut was grated fresh on the spot. It was soooooo delicious, even when we had them in the evening.

I also saw a popiah skin seller making the skin on the spot.

Girls found the place extremely interesting too, although it was a hot day, they enjoyed themselves checking out all the different stalls.

We then stopped by at Toh Soon Cafe (Lebuh Campbell) for drinks. I absolutely love the ice coffee-C (coffee with evaporated milk) there.

And Zaria loved the ice teh-C.

Pity the girls have to endure the heat, but luckily they didn’t complain.

We had some light lunch and then headed back to the hotel for a nap.

Girls spent more time at the pool after their nap, and was really hungry during dinner. We had our last dinner at De Happy Seafood Restaurant (62, Macalister Road) near the hotel. It was not bad, although a bit pricey.

♥June 13 – Sunday♥

The hotel was extremely busy on our last day. We had to wait for 15mins to get a table for breakfast, as the restaurant was full.

After breakfast, I went back to Chowrasta Market to buy nutmeg and zhong (Mandarin : rice dumpling) while Daddy took the girls to the pool.

After I got back with my loot, we checked out and headed for lunch. We decided to go to Lorong Selamat for Char Kuey Teow. Big mistake. The place was very crowded, and we were told the wait is more than an hour, and if we weren’t willing to wait, we can go else where.

We waited, and true enough, got served only more than an hour later. And seriously, the kuey teow isn’t as good as our favourite stall (and RM7 per plate!). And the people in the coffee shop where the stall was located were extremely rude. We decided this would be our last time here. Next year, we should boycot this place.

Drive back home was rather slow as the traffic on the high way was very heavy. Maybe before Zara starts Std 1, we should try to go for holidays during school days instead to avoid all the expensive hotel rates and crowd.

Last weekend, Daddy was in the mood to go to the country side (that’s what he calls these places), even though I was not as keen. My excuse, HOT! HOT! HOT!

Just so he doesn’t say all I do is expose the kids to shopping malls, I went along. With an ice box in tow, we headed to Kuala Selangor…for lunch! Try asking him to go to PJ to meet friends, he’ll complain so far, waste of petrol, but….. Kuala Selangor…FOR LUNCH…. that’s ok.

The drive to Kuala Selangor was a pleasant one. Pleasant because we were in the aircon car, sleeping.. , while Daddy drove.

Somewhere on the journey, we stopped, because we saw this road shaded by trees which made the scenary look over-sea-ish. So we took turns to hop on down to take some photos.

When we arrived at our regular place for lunch, we were glad there’s no crowd.

Alas, the food wasn’t as good any more. Luckily the company was good, especially when the girls were in a good mood after their naps in the car.

So we’d decided if we ever did come the next time, we’ll go somewhere else FOR LUNCH. But.. the hiong peng here is quite good.

So we bought a few packs home.

Wanted to buy the Ikan Bilis, but when I asked if they were locally produced, I was told the fish were from Pangkor or Thailand. So, I didn’t get any.

Saw this stall selling Bubble Tea at the road side, near the Hiong Peng shop. With just a blender (powered by generator), some ‘powder’ or ‘flavouring’ and a container of water and ice. Who would order from him? Hmmmm..

Then we’re off, to a nearby fishing village (directed by a local) to buy some fish, and head on home.

Daddy couldn’t resist taking a photo of this tree on our way home.

Of course, Daddy being the adventurous one, wanted to make another stop at Batu Arang, and that’s like entering a time warp. Shops, buildings all looked ancient.

Even the play ground looks like the one we used to have when we were younger. You don’t see these kind of monkey bars made with metal any more in new housing area.

I stayed in the car all these while, just didn’t want to get baked under the sun.

Girls, like their dad, did enjoy themselves.

When we read on newspaper that the National Museum of Singapore will be cooperating with Kunsthistorische Museum Vienna, Egyptian and Near Eastern Department to display some artefacts from ancient Egypt early this year, we’d already planned to make a trip down to Singapore as Zara has a lot of interest in pyramids, mummies, etc.

I never knew it was under such circumstance that the trip finally materialised. Daddy drove the girls down together with Jelly (my insistence) on 18th March. Luckily my dad recovered well after surgery, or I think we won’t be doing all the sight seeing.

♥17th March, Thursday♥
Girls and Daddy arrived. Girls were so happy to see me after a week. They were hugging me and kissing me, and Zaria kept telling me, “I love you very very very very very much, mum.”

Daddy was showing sour face the whole time because of the sleeping arrangement, and also his inability to get tickets to Universal Studio (as if it’s my fault!)

♥18th March, Friday♥
I cooked a hearty breakfast for everybody. Scrambled egg white for my dad, egg and bacon for the rest. I had Greek yogurt and honey instead, something I can’t find or cost too much in KL.

After instructing Jelly what to cook for lunch, Daddy, the girls and I left for the National Museum. Girls got all excited when they saw the Quest of Immortality posters in the ticketting hall. Finally, they could enjoy what we’d talked about since the newspaper reading.

Zara then pointed, “Mum, look, Hieroglyphic!”. I had no idea what it was, and had to follow her gaze. You can imagine how much interest she has in all things Egyptian.

After the Quest of Immortality, we went on to visit The Singapore History Gallery. Seriously, how much history does Singapore has? But they did it in a story telling way, with free multimedia handheld device given out which guides you around the gallery, it made the whole thing so interesting.

I left the gallery with the girls first (because my device broke down half way) and proceeded to have lunch. Daddy turned up 30mins later. He said he thoroughly enjoyed the visit.

After lunch, we went shopping at Sommerset 313 and later met up with my brother and his family, my dad and sis for dinner.

♥19th March, Saturday♥
My brother brought my dad for his check up, and left my nieces with me. Again, I made everybody a big breakfast, and I continued to have my yogurt.

We went to the zoo after breakfast. It was actually pouring, but since we didn’t have any other day to do this (my nieces were going home the following day), we just braved on, with raincoats bought from the zoo.

That’s how silly we looked.

Even in this weather, the walk around the zoo was very pleasant. So green, so much to see, so informative. We could see almost all the animals up close.

There’s the outback section where girls can pat kangaroos.

My favourite, the polar bear.

Zaria’s favourite, the baboons. She has a book about June the baboon, so she was very interested to see a baboon real life.
After that, she told everyone “Baboons have heart shaped backside!”

We left the zoo in the evening, and then straight on to dinner with the rest of the family, and off shopping again.

♥20th March, Sunday♥
We had breakfast together at Tiong Baru Market. Probably the only market we know how to go, and my dad’s favourite eating place.

After breakfast, my brother and his family, my dad and my sister left home. We had to sort out with the ‘hotel‘ on the refund we wanted since we were leaving earlier (as my dad has been given permission to leave Singapore by the doctors earlier than planned), and also moved to a new room. (When I wrote this post the refund is still in progress)

We then brought Jelly along and took a taxi and went to Suntec City. Big mistake! Nothing there, not much to shop. We made the girls walked from Suntec City to Millenia Walk, then to Marina Square, and then later to Esplanade.

We then headed back to the ‘hotel’ to rest. At night, it was another round of shopping, this time at Ion (which I think where we shopped most).

After shopping, the girls played at the water fountain at Ion, and had a lot of fun.
Luckily we brought them spare clothes.

Daddy then suggested we took the MTR to Raffles Place to look at the Merlion up close. Zara and I were so tired, we didn’t really bother, Merlion or not. Zaria was however very keen. So off we went again.

♥21st March, Monday♥
We woke up late, had a lazy morning, then went to Wisma Atria for lunch, and then headed home.

A couple of times I’d seen Jasmine posted about her visits to Dong Zhen temple, and the beautiful photos she’d taken, and I’d told Daddy that we must also visit this temple one day.

On the 3rd day of Chinese New Year, since we didn’t have anywhere to go, we brought the girls on the long car ride to Jenjarom, to visit the Dong Zhen Temple (Actually, I don’t know why it’s called Dong Zhen, because the Chinese pronunciation for 東禪 is Dong Chan. Maybe it’s how it’s pronunced in another dialect).

We had a simple panmee dinner at some open air eatery before the temple, when we’re done, it was close to to 8pm and the road towards the temple has already been blocked. We had to park and walk about 1km.

The temple was very beutifully decorated, with red lanterns, fairy lights, and colour ligh tubes everywhere. They have very good lantern display, beautiful lanterns in all the Chinese zodiac signs, as well as in other auspicious forms were scattered around the big temple ground. The place has also drawn a very big crowd.

They had some Chinese New Year show on as well, and when we arrived, the Dragon Dance was being performed but we didn’t manage to catch it because we didn’t know the way to get to the performance area (heard it but couldn’t see it).

We only managed to catch a mini parade.

When the girls wanted to go to the toilet, I thought the nightmare has come. I assumed with such a big crowd, the toilet would be filthy. To my surprise, it was very clean. The volunteers who cleaned the toilet did such a good job I had to say.

We then got caught in a rain fall, which lasted about 20mins. The rain didn’t cool down the place, but made the ground a bit soggy (and I didn’t like it).

I didn’t want to walk any more but just sat at a bench with the girls, while Daddy went around to take more photos.

Although the whole place was beautiful, the stiffling night heat took away all the fun. Both Zara and I agreed that if Daddy wanted to go again next year, he’ll have to go alone, as we don’t want to be drenched in sweat any more.

The girls’ one month holidays and my 2 weeks holidays are over! Dang!

Before my holidays started, I had big plans like wanting to watch some DVDs, read a few books, go for a few sesssions of massages etc. But…as though in the spirit of 1Malaysia, I only managed to watch 1movie, went for 1massage and finished the 1book I was reading even before I started my leave. Bah!!

Besides our Bali holidays, here are the things we did that made this holiday just zoomed by so quickly :

♥Beautifying the house♥
Daddy painted the bathrooms ceiling, and we also bought new curtains to replace some of our old ones.

♥Checked out Christmas decorations at some malls♥
And managed to catch the ‘snow-fall’ in Pavilion (which the girls absolutely loved).

♥Celebrated Tasha’s 4th birthday at Jungle Gym♥

♥Celebrated Christmas♥
With a Chinese dinner (thanks to my dad who paid for dinner)

And plenty of present opening.

Zaria’s favourite present is the muffin Ah Ku (my bro) and Ah Kim (my SIL) bought for her.

Zara’s favourite present is Patrick from Spongebob, but unforutely that’s not hers but her cousin, Alicia’s.

♥Play with the girls or watch them play♥
They loved playing with the Elephant that my sister bought which puffed out butterflies for them to catch.

♥Girls did plenty of drawing and arts and crafts with no supervision♥
Zara cut out pieces of coloured papers and made this Christmas art.

And also a bag for me.

Of course for Christmas she drew this.

Zaria not to be outdone, did lots of drawing too. And I’ll need to have another post to write about this.

♥Celebrated Zaria’s birthday♥, and to be fair, will have another post for this too.

♥Went to Sunway Lagoon with my sister and Tasha♥

By evening, all were hungry and the little one extremely tired.

Had a ♥New Year’s BBQ♥ (all were too busy to take any photos).

And of course ♥lots of baking and cooking♥.
Hop on to my new site to catch some of the things I made.

This is the last installment of the trip. Continue from here.

♥Dec 1♥
Breakfast at Cicada Luxury Townhouse has to be ordered the day before, and it was brought to our room at our specified time.

It was complimentary for 2, but the quantity was enough for all of us. Girls each have a croissant (which had been removed from the basket in pic below), and some of my pancakes.

We decided to go on a tour to see : salt production, rice terrace, volcano. We booked a car (450,000 Rupiahs for 10hrs) and started our journey at 9:30am.

Driver brought us to a beach near Gianyar where salt used to be produced.

The salt traders however were gone. It was too much hard work and too little profit, so the salt producers all turned to a more profitable trade – pebble trading (they picked the pebbles from the beach, sort them according to size and sell them). We were dissapointed.

It was then a long ride up to Kintamani, to view the volcanos. Seen here is Mount Batur, and Lake Batur

Then another long drive to view the rice terrace at Tegalalang.

Tegalalang is also famous for wood handicrafts, and we saw a lot of young men carving wood blocks into beautiful art pieces.

After this, we went to Bebek Bengil, Ubud for lunch (which we found quality has lowered) and also to did some shopping. I managed to get some really nice jewelry pieces, but after walking for about ~2hrs under the hot sun, I started to feel a migraine coming.

Our driver said he asked around and found there’s a confirmed salt producer at Kusamba beach, so he drove us there. When we arrived at Kusamba, my head was already pounding, so I just stayed under the shed while Daddy looked around. He told me this was how salt was produced.

Sea water is mixed with sand and put into this container to get filtered.

Then the filtered sea water is collected (it actually goes through a few more round of filtering before being collected).

All these done in a small shed.

The filtered sea water is then left to dry under the sun, and salt will be produced.

Zara had a good time playing at the beach in Kusamba too.

By the time we got to the van, my migraine was getting worse. Instead of heading for dinner, we headed back to the villa. On our way back, I actually had to stop 3, 4 times to vomit. That night, the girls and Daddy had room service while I slept to get through the migraine.

♥Dec 2♥
I felt much better in the morning after a good sleep. The girls just wanted to swim, so they spent sometime at our own plunge pool as well as the main pool.

We took it easy for the rest of the day, just went shopping around Seminyak, had lunch at a nice restaurant, Warong Made.

I went for another massage when the girls were napping, and on my way, saw lots of people carrying offerings to the Petitenget Temple, so I told Daddy we should go and check out what’s happening.

It seemed, there was a 3 days celebration/prayers of some sort at the Petitenget Temple (which is located near the Petitenget Beach). We went over to the beach in the evening, and saw many people praying, giving offerings etc.





Of course when there are people, there is food. The stalls just sprouted around the beach (which were not there 2 days ago when we went to the beach).

After praying at the beach, everybody started heading towards the temple. Zaria was complaining she was feeling cold (a fever was brewing), so I brought the girls back to the villa while Daddy entered the temple to see more.

We had dinner at Bebek Bali that night, a place which offered all types of duck dishes.

Zaria wanted a photo of herself at the entrance of the restaurant (she was already running a fever).

When we got back, I realised Zaria was a bit feverish, her temparature was 38.4C and I gave her some fever medicine and got her to sleep early. When I went to bed at 12am and checked her again, her fever has shot up to 39C! Throughout the night, I had to sponge her, and her fever was hovering around 39.4~39.7 and she was muttering things nonsensical, making me extremely worried. I tried to stay guarded the whole night to sponge and check on her and drifted in and out of sleep (while Daddy snored away, typical).

♥Dec 3♥
Early in the morning, Zaria’s fever was still high. We informed the reception and asked if we could have a doctor sent to check on her. They instead offer to send us to a nearby doctor. I went with Zaria to Bali Clinic in Cicada’s van. The doctor checked and found Zaria had very bad throat infection, gave her suppository, some antibiotic, flu medicine and cough mixture and charged me USD90! A price I paid to get peace of mind.

When we got back to Cicada, I took a nap to recharge. We then started packing and prepared to check out. We were so delighted when the staff informed us we could have our villa till 5pm when our airport transport arrived, since Zaria was recovering from a very bad fever. How sweet of them! We didn’t even ask for it and was given just like that.

Daddy stayed at the villa with the girls while I went out to do some last minute shopping. I didn’t manage to get much as the street in Seminyak had a power cut and there was no aircon in any of the shops, and it was a super hot day. I bought lunch back, we just lazed around the room, and at 5pm went to the airport for our 7pm flight. Zaria’s fever by this time has subsided. Phew.

Continue from here.

♥Nov 29♥
After breakfast, we just lazed about. Then we had another obligation to fulfil, i.e. to bring the sponsor my dad out for a massage (“Come to Bali no massage? How can?”).

Only my SIL, my dad and I went. The massage centre provided free transport, and we all chose hot stone massage. Sharing the same room with my SIL, we were hoping for a relaxing massage, but the 2 masseurs were chatting throughout the 2hrs. The massage wasn’t that good too, felt just like someone rubbing oil on you. Grrr.

Daddy stayed at the villa and spent time taking photos accompanied the girls when they swam.

When we got back from our massage, lunch was ready (prepared by the villa).
Yums!

After that it was rest and relax and then at 4:30pm, our booked vans arrived to bring us to Jimbaran to watch the sunset.

The girls have no appreciation of the view, but they were happy to get to play with sand.

The place was crowded with tourists as well as locals.

Sam has very kindly relieved me off my porter duty.

When the sun was about to set at the horizon, we started seeing some tourists doing weird poses for their cameras, i.e. one put her hand out in such a way that it looked like she was carrying the sun; a few couples were kissing so the sun was just above their joined head; etc etc.

Here is my version. Daddy didn’t position the camera properly, so no ‘stylo-mylo’ shot.

After that, it was time for dinner. There were so many restaurants at the beach that competition was steep. My brother and sister went hunting for a restaurant which offered the best discount and they found one which was willing to give 30% off.

While waiting for the food to be served, Zara taught her cousins how to do the kung-fu panda dance she learnt for her concert.

And Daddy of course, went to do more photo shooting.

After dinner, one van drove some of the people home, while another brought a few of us to Kuta to buy DVDs. Imagine, 10,000Rupiah (USD1) for 1 DVD, and when you buy 10, it’s free 4. Buy 20, free 10, etc etc. My brother, my nephew and I bought almost 60 over pieces of DVDs and paid 30,000Rupiahs! What a loot.

♥Nov 30♥
It was time to pack up and leave after breakfast. My extended family checked out of Villa Longhouse, and went shopping in 2 vans then later catch a flight back home; while our family of four took another van to get to our new villa in Seminyak.

I’d spent a lot of time on researching for a place to stay (no Kuta, Ubud, Nusa Dua because we’d been there, no big hotels) and finally agreed on Cicada Luxury Townhouse, it is located near Petitenget beach at the fringe of Seminyak, the best part is payment is via paypal! So my blogging actually paid for our stay!

And it looks exactly like what is shown on the website. We get a plunge pool big enough (but rather deep) for the kids to splash about.

The spacious living room with a kitchenette gave us lots of space.

The bedroom with an outdoor rainshower and tub, and Zara claimed the extra bed for her was very cozy.

We didn’t do much except walk around to look for restaurant for lunch, checked out the beach in the evening and then later, went to a highly rated (at tripadviser) local restaurant Warong Sobat, near the villa, for dinner.
All this food with drinks and beer and starter for less than RM40.